Last updated at 13:45, Thursday, 22 July 2010

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THERE will be a spring in the step of Halifax as they come to Craven Park on the back of their Northern Rail Nines triumph in Blackpool.

A strong Fax side emerged victorious at Fylde RUFC, beating Sheffield 16-4 in the final and lifting the silverware ahead of 17 other Championship and Championship One clubs.

But the diversion to the nines will be forgotten when Matt Calland’s men travel to Furness for tonight’s televised clash, with significantly more at stake than their most recent silverware.

Fax sit one place and three points above Barrow in the Championship standings, and the victors will be favourites to go on and clinch second place behind leaders Featherstone, something Calland is all too aware of.

“I think it’s going to be a great game,” he said.

“It’s a massive game for both clubs – we are both fighting for that second spot.

“It’s a really tough ask to go all the way up to Barrow on a Thursday night, but I’m sure the boys will give their all.

“That’s our target at the moment – to finish in the top two – and I’m sure Barrow have got the same target as us. If you get that top-two spot and win the first game you play, then you go straight to the final.

“I’m sure there will still be a lot of twists and turns before the end of the season, and I’m sure it’s going to be a cracking fixture.”

Fax head into tonight’s game without the injured Said Tamghart, James Haley and Mark Gleeson, but – just like Barrow with Keal Carlile and Anthony Blackwood – secured new signatures on transfer deadline day, with the signings of Sam Barlow, from Sheffield, and Adam Rudd, from Leigh.

They also go into the game with the knowledge they crushed Barrow the last time the two sides met, winning 46-24 at the Shay in May.

That was a day when the entire Fax side seemed to fire – with Shad Royston, Paul White, Rob Worrincy, Luke Branighan, Steve Bannister, Stanley Gene, Jon Goddard and Bob Beswick all scoring, as Barrow were in the midst of a three-game losing streak.

Calland knows Barrow will be out for revenge for that, and also knows his side have won only one of their last three league outings – a 66-16 crushing of relegation certainties Whitehaven.

“Barrow will be out for revenge because we gave them a bit of a hiding the last time we played them,” he said.

“We’ve just got to be mentally tough, mentally strong, to go up there and put in a good performance.

“We’ve been struggling all season and we have been up and down, but I was really pleased with the way we played in the second half against Whitehaven.

“That gave us a lot of confidence which we will take into this game and it promises to be a really good game.

“We’ve still got Tamghart out, Haley out and Gleeson is out for the season, but that’s part and parcel of the game and I am sure Barrow have got their own problems as well at this stage of the season.”

He added: “We’re just going to take each game as it comes.

“I know it’s the old cliche, but we’re just concentrating on winning every game we play towards the end of the season, trying to build some momentum and make some small improvements with each game.

“Hopefully, if we do that, then the ladder will look after itself.”

First published at 13:05, Thursday, 22 July 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk